


Broken and At Sea

by Raikcaa



Series: Broken [2]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Broken Bones, Drowning, Legend also swears, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Nightmares, Pneumonia, Wild and Warriors centered angst, alot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 11:53:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20114674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raikcaa/pseuds/Raikcaa
Summary: Wild and Warriors find themselves stranded, alone and at sea, too bad only one of them knows how to swim! An angsty fic for all those angst lovers. (Warriors needs more angst...)





	Broken and At Sea

**Author's Note:**

> You don't need to read Broken and Frozen before this ! (But Wild is still suffering from injuries from that!)  
LINKED UNIVERSE Au by Jojo56830  
I also don't know how exactly pneumonia actually works so, my bad if I wrote it wrong.

He, like many of the others, had grown accustomed to nightmares and sleep terrors, which is why Wild avoided sleep like the plague. In a state of recovery, after as Twilight would say, “Foolishly jumping off a cliff like he had wings,” Wild had to sleep a bit more than usual for a faster recovery. 

That was fine. Not that the fever ridden dreams were enjoyable but Wild usually could remember he was dreaming… 

In fact Wild could recount his dreams clearly. He reinvisioned his past failures, the deaths of his comrades, the deaths of so many people, the death of a future prosperity and of course the blood moon. 

Although he normally didn’t have dreams like these. 

Dreams of awakening to face the sun’s rays, magnified by the water above his head and his feet in the dark shadows of the ocean below him.

Air rapidly escaping him as he struggled to move. Struggled to get his head above the water. 

The salt water burning his eyes. 

Normally his drowning dreams were about being unable to escape the shrine of resurrection. 

This was different. 

This was very different.

Almost too real to be a dream. 

Almost like the pain from kicking with a leg still broken was too real to be a dream. 

He was so close. 

He could feel the warm air on his arms and hands as they scratched the atmosphere above him, as he tried to scramble and swim for air.

Water entered his mouth as he gasped for air that he could almost reach. 

His hand found something that he swore wasn’t there before. With the texture of wood, was he in a forest?

No a piece of driftwood. 

He used the driftwood to heave himself up. 

Coughing water, his lungs must be full of water. His eyes stung and his whole body ached, his broken leg throbbed. His head didn’t feel good either, in honesty he felt like throwing up.

Wild took the chance to look around. All he saw was the waves that surrounded- beneath him! Fear started to course through his mind, a little bit further out and under the ocean he saw struggling. Bright blue, green and silver, with a head of gold. 

Warriors. 

Wild took a deep breath and dived down. 

Warriors didn’t know how to swim.

Wild focused on reaching Warriors instead of the immense pain in his leg. 

Hooking his arms around Warriors’ shoulders, Wild began to try and swim up. 

Warriors was far more heavier than Wild had thought, it was straining Wild’s body to pull Warriors up. 

Wild used his uninjured leg to kick towards the driftwood and hook Warrior’s body around it, making sure he was holding on and his face was in the air. 

Wild let himself tread the water instead of hanging onto the driftwood and give his own leg a break from the stress of swimming. 

Warriors breathing. That was good. Although his breath was shaky, once they got to shore Wild could try to make him cough up the water. 

But he had to get to shore to do that. 

The shore looked awfully far away… 

No. Wild had to get Warriors to shore. He couldn’t lose hope now. 

It was far too cold for them to be out in the water, especially with how fast night was approaching. 

Wild put his one hand on Warriors’ side, where he could feel how unsteady the Captain’s breathing was, and the other on the piece of driftwood and used his uninjured leg to kick. This way, hopefully, Warriors wouldn’t fall back into the water. Wild wasn’t sure he had the stamina to dive down again.

He didn’t even bother equipping his Zora armor, it wouldn’t be much use with his broken leg out of commission. 

Slowly and steadily, with determination Wild barely had, he pushed the makeshift raft and his injured comrade to the shore. 

Surviving was different when someone was depending on you for survival. 

If Wild were alone? He would let himself stay in the sea until he felt the energy to swim to shore. He’d probably even take breaks, but with Warriors in this weak state, he had a sense of urgency in his head barking at him when he slowed down.

Warriors was depending on him. If Wild let another friend die? 

No. He shouldn’t think of that, again. 

The others would probably blame him for Warriors’ death anyway… 

Wait- Where were the others?

Frantically Wild looked around him. His eyes wandered to the deep sea where he couldn't see a thing- no. No! No..

Did they drown too?! 

Maybe. Maybe just Wild and Warriors switched different Hyrules… 

That had to be it. There was no way they all drowned… Legend could swim right? And Time?

Wild remembered that he held Warriors’ fate in his hands. He had to get to the shore. That way not all of them would die… Wild wouldn’t be alone… again. 

Wild felt like he was swimming for hours. He probably was, he couldn’t go far with only one leg pushing him.

He felt like his physical body was stuck in this cycle of swimming. His mental self was left sleeping or maybe wandering, it felt like in a blink the sun was setting and the ocean was highlighted by the orange reflection of the sky. 

In what felt like a blink his foot hit the sand of the shore line. 

Wild nearly lost his grip on Warriors and fell into the ocean face forward when he hit the sand. 

His swimming turned into a crawl. 

He had tried to walk and lead Warriors, who was still collapsed on the driftwood onto the shore, but his leg nearly buckled under his weight, he still couldn’t stand on his previously broken leg. 

Yet he still managed to pull Warriors onto the shore and away from the water. 

Wild sat up, a familiar dizzy feeling made itself known in Wild’s head, he turned Warriors on his back. 

As a knight of Hyrule, he had learned how to perform CPR, thankfully it was common for people to know that in his own Hyrule, but hopefully it wasn’t too late for that… 

Wild got to his knees, or one knee, and clasped his hands together and started to push down on Warriors’ chest.

It took over three pushes for Warriors to start coughing up water. Thank Hylia! 

Surprisingly Warriors pushed Wild away from him and turned to his side and coughed up more water. 

“Captain?” Wild asked softly, his hand on Warriors’ shoulder. 

Wild was met with a groan. 

“At least you’re alive,” Wild let himself fall back into the sand. Exhaustion was hitting him hard, “Gonna take a small nap…” 

Wild closed his eyes. 

\----

Time just wanted a drink. 

He was not going to drink the salty water he was currently frantically treading water. 

He went down to the inn kitchen after leaving Warriors to watch Wild, he had been hungry and really just wanted an ale or something. Then they switched Hyrules as he reached for the cup of ale. 

So far he had found Sky, who had nearly drowned in his sleep. Good thing he was able to wake him up. At least Sky was able to swim, probably better than Time himself. 

Then they swam a little because Sky saw Twilight struggling in the distance, Four was clinging to Twilight’s shoulder like a child lost its mother. 

They weren’t as far out as Time thought they were, only seeing through one eye messed with his depth perception sometimes. It was a short swim to where they were. 

Sky transferred Four, who was uncharacteristically panicking, onto his own shoulder. Time wrapped Twilight's arm around shoulder, the Pup looked like he was about to pass out any minute. Time guessed that Twilight wasn’t as good as a swimmer. 

“Where are we?” The Pup’s voice was shaky. His hand was cold, Time was instantly worried about the Pup’s health. 

“Wind’s Hyrule!” Sky had to almost shout across the crashing of waves, his voice was usually quiet, it was odd. 

“F-Fucking fantastic.” Time could have sworn he saw a light in Four’s eyes change from red to blue. 

“What about the others?” Twilight asked, Time knew that the others really meant Wild. Although Twilight was right to worry, Wild just recovered from his fever and his leg was still broken. 

“Myself, Warriors and Hyrule can’t swim!” Four was trying to mask how scared he was, Time could hear it in the hero’s voice. 

“We should start swimming,” Time said in the most inspiring tone he could manage while in the huge sea, “I’m sure we’ll be able to find the others.” 

\----

Hyrule was lucky that Legend happened to be in the ocean next to him. He would be grateful, if he wasn’t crying and shaking. 

An hour or two ago Legend had dived under the current to save the mousy boy. Hyrule had nearly punched Legend, who was trying to save him from the waters deep depths. 

Legend was able to hoist Hyrule up by his waist and pull him into the air. Hyrule saw Legend and started to apologize over and over again. 

Legend gave him an iconic soft and wrapped Hyrule around the waist with one arm and treaded water as effortlessly as possible with his other limbs. 

A long while later, they saw a ship in the distance and started to scream. 

They screamed for the ship until they were face to face with Wind’s smug face. Wind was a pirate after all. The kid wasn’t going to let Legend and Hyrule live this down.

Now they sat on deck while they let Wind search for the others. Hyrule was wrapped in a blanket with tears falling down his face. 

“‘Rule?” Legend tried to not come across as snarky, “You okay there?” 

“Uhuh.” Little liar. 

“We’ll be fine,” Legend was afraid that came across as too snarky, again, “I’m sure the others will be fine. Don’t cry.” 

That was a lie. Legend was not sure that the others were okay. Warriors and Four didn’t know how to swim, or at least swim for a long time. Wind better hurry the- 

“‘M sorry I punched you.” Was that what he was upset about?

“I would have punched me too.” Hyrule giggled. Legend let out a snort.

“LEGEND! HYRULE!” Legend got to his feet as fast as he could once he heard Wind’s shouts, “LOOK! OVER THERE, TO THE WEST!” 

Legend spun on his heels. In the vast ocean, to the west, he saw Time waving them down with at least three others. 

“I’ll lower a rope, you go help them!” Hyrule disappeared from his side. Legend saw Wind help Hyrule with the rope, or maybe it was Hyrule helping Wind. 

“Lower the boat, not the rope Hyrule!” Legend heard Wind yell over the wind and waves. 

Legend dived straight into the water with a big splash. He was a fast swimmer. Soon enough he was faced with Sky, Twilight, Four and Time. 

Legend took Four, who was now grappled on his arm, and started to swim to the boat. There was a mini boat with Hyrule in it. Legend passed Four to Hyrule, good thing Four was tiny, and sat him on the smaller boat. 

Legend quickly swam back and assisted Twilight who was a terrible swimmer in Legend’s humble opinion. Twilight was able to get onto the mini boat with his own strength and a hand from Hyrule. 

Sky and Time were now by his side. Twilight and Hyrule helped Time into the mini boat despite his claims of being fine. Legend could tell that the Old Man was exhausted. 

Lastly Sky and himself hobbled into the mini boat, “Bring ‘er up!” Legend yelled at Wind. 

Soon enough they were all aboard the ship. 

“I don’t suppose Wild and Warriors are on the ship too?” Time asked Wind, whose proud expression turned into one riddled with anxieties and worries.

Shit.

\----

The thick smoky air filled his lungs as he stood in the center of a storm of fire and wraith. 

His body was on fire.

Skin charred. His long hair was slowly burning. 

He was on fire. 

Red dots, followed by the familiar red lasers covered his body.

He felt explosions on his side, then he felt nothing, the nerve damage had been too strong. 

He laid in the middle of a smoky field. Someone was crying. Salty tears burned on his cheek.

He remembered the feeling of darkness. 

Death. 

He died, subcombing to the darkness that waited to drown him again, and again, and again, and-

The smell of smoke returned and Wild could hear the crackling sound of a campfire. Opening his eyes, he saw the clear blue sky peeking out from under the leaves of unfamiliar trees. 

It was a dream. Despite his scars feeling particularly achy and his body sore, he was fine. 

He turned his head to the small campfire. He didn’t remember building it, or being this far from the shoreline. Did Warriors carry him here? 

Wild heard Warriors before he saw him. Warriors’ breath was more like a wheeze, Wild could tell there was still some sort of fluid in his lungs by just how heavily the Captain breathed. 

He sat up despite the screams of protest in his own body. Warriors’ eyes were closed, his face looked like he had lost all color and sweat dripped down Warriors forehead and cheek. Something was very wrong.

A hand found itself on Warriors’ forehead, it was hot. Warriors squirmed away from Wild’s touch. 

Warriors needed medical attention, the type of attention that Wild could not give him… but how to reach anyone? 

The smoke! 

Wild didn’t know if smoke signals were a thing in this Hyrule but they usually worked in his Hyrule so maybe someone could find them… hopefully. 

Wild searched his Sheikah slate for one of his spears, something that he could lean on and help him walk. Wild also found a cooling potion which surprised him, he wasn’t sure when he got that. 

Wild tried to feed the cooling potion to Warriors, hoping it would bring his fever down or help him in some way but Warriors ended up cursing him out in almost incoherent mumbles and spitting it out. 

With a sigh he took the spear and carefully stood. 

Firewood and kindling wasn’t hard to find. The little island had quite a few trees. Many of which had fallen branches and a few fallen logs, hopefully they wouldn’t be caught in the same tropical storm that tore this island to shreds. 

Wild was smart enough to know that building a huge fire in their small campsite would be a bad idea, they’d be smoked out so Wild settled for the beach. 

It took him a while to haul the wood to the beach, but a few collapses and many stumbles later Wild was able to gather quite a lot of wood. 

Making a fire was easy, compared to the wood gathering. Wild didn’t have the patience for using flint, however he did have a few fire arrows left. 

With a grin he backed up and shot the arrow with his bow, stored in the Sheikah slate, and a massive fire was lit. 

The others called him a pyromaniac for a reason. 

Satisfied, Wild watched the smoke drift into the sky. Someone would eventually notice. 

Wild made his way back to Warriors, whose condition did not look improved in the slightest. Wild considered trying to wake the Captain up, but ultimately decided against it. Warriors was weak, he needed to rest. 

There wasn’t much left to do. Both fires, small and huge, were going. Wild already looked for some sort of food and there wasn’t much. The trees held no fruit and the vegetation wasn’t anything that Wild recognized, it would be a gamble to eat any plant life. He didn’t have much in his Sheikah slate, he had been meaning to restock. 

So Wild sat against a tree and watched Warriors.

He didn’t remember a time he felt so helpless. 

He had never seen Warriors so weak. 

It was worrisome, Warriors was supposed to be the stronger one of the two. 

Even in such a weak state, Wild was still stronger than Warriors. That was very bad and the only thing Wild could do was wait. 

So Wild waited. 

\----

The boat had been mindlessly soaring across the long and vast sea for hours. Wind was confident that they’d see something.

After hours and hours of nothing, what else did they have to lose? 

Wild and Warriors were still missing and Time wasn’t going to bring up the real fact that they could very well be dead, not yet at least. 

Most of the group still had some sort of hope to ride on, not including the permanent frown Legend wore. 

Time was on the brink of calling off this mission. 

Then he saw the smoke. 

A flume of smoke that drifted into the clouds, dark flumes that contrasted against the sunset. 

Then Wind screamed, “Land! Make for the shoreline!” 

The boat drifted towards the shore as far as it could. Then Wind sprinted for the side boat, followed by the others. 

Hyrule and Four offered to stay behind. They could haul the boat back up and Time was sure that they didn’t want to risk falling into the ocean again. 

Twilight rowed them to shore. 

Then Sky pointed to something in the distance, a smaller smoke flume, a smaller fire. 

Twilight pushed the boat onto the shore while Legend hopped out and sprinted to the smaller fire as the others followed in pursuit. 

Time nearly fell onto Legend as he suddenly stopped at the edge where the forest and the sandy beach met. 

Warriors was on his back, coughing and mumbling nonsense in the most wheezy way he could and Wild was wrapped in a ball shivering, his broken leg twitching. 

“Shit.” Legend spoke for the both of them. 

“What’s wrong?” Sky came running up next to Time, “Oh.” 

“‘Least they aren’t dead,” Time sighed, “Sky go get Twilight.” Sky nodded and ran off again. 

Legend kneeled next to Warriors as Time kneeled next to Wild and put a hand on his forehead, “Wild’s fever is back.” 

“Something is seriously wrong with Captain,” Legend’s voice was quiet, filled with a dread that Time hadn’t heard in a while, “He’s sick, and he’s coughing up fluid. I think it's pneumonia or something.” 

“What-umonia?” Twilight asked as he appeared by Legend’s side, “Are they okay!?” 

“It’s a sickness, Pup,” Time had heard of pneumonia once before as a child, “I bet Wind will know more about it, he’s at the boat right?” 

“Yeah…” Twilight’s voice became quieter. Time saw Twilight’s eyes shift from the Cub to the Captain. 

"They're going to be fine Pup, don't worry..." Time could see the layer of guilt hidden under Twilight's eyes and worried facade. Of course he blamed himself in situations where Wild was hurt. 

“Can you carry Warriors to the boat?” Time asked as he scooped up Wild once again in his arms, careful of the broken leg. 

Twilight leaned down and put Warriors’ arm around his own shoulders. Legend did the same with the other arm. 

“Let’s get back to the ship,” Time said as he smiled looking down at Wild, who nuzzled his head against Time’s shoulder, aiming for a sense of comfort, “They need a real bed.”

Everything would be fine.

\----

Warriors felt like shit and he probably looked like shit too.

His chest hurt, he was riddled with fatigue, he wasn’t even hungry and he last remembered he really wanted bread. 

He was in a bed. In a cabin. A cabin that seemed to defy gravity and normal physics as it rocked back and forth. 

“Where the h-” he didn’t know who he was talking to but they were interrupted by a series of coughs. 

“We’re in Wind’s Hyrule.” That was Legend’s bitter voice.

“Is Wild-” He coughed again as Legend’s figure clouded his eyesight. 

“Mhmm,” The last time Warriors remembered seeing Wild was when he managed to carry a sleeping Wild away from the approaching tides but Warriors thought that was a dream, “He’s on the bed to your right, you could probably reach him if you stretch your arm.” 

“What happened?” Warriors just couldn’t remember much, he just remembered the sweet fire in the Inn. 

“You nearly drowned dumbass!” Was Legend angry at him? “Learn how to fucking swim pretty boy!” 

“Asshole.” Was that a little smirk on his face?

“Guard dog.” Legend’s tone of voice did not fit his insult. 

“Legend…” 

“I’m glad Wild was able to save you, dipshit.” Wild saved him? 

“Wild’s leg-” Coughing. Again. This was getting old.

“Don’t worry I’m sure Twilight will yell at him later.”

“I should have been able to help him.” Warriors was ashamed that he made Wild take care of him when the kid was still injured.

“Warriors,” Legend’s voice was very different, it was calm and almost soft, “You should rest. You need to heal.”

“It’s almost like you care!” Warriors laughter turned into a coughing fit.

“Shut up!”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this was enjoyable! Thank you for reading and any feedback is appreciated !


End file.
